Funeral held for Anas al-Sharif and other journalists killed in Israeli strike
Sharif, one of Al Jazeera's most recognisable faces in Gaza, was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night. Seven people in total were killed in the attack, including Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, according to the Qatar-based broadcaster.
People gathered at Sheikh Radwan cemetery in the heart of the Gaza Strip to mourn the journalists, whose bodies lay wrapped in white sheets at al-Shifa hospital complex ahead of their burial. Friends, colleagues and relatives embraced and consoled one another.
Israel Defense Forces admitted carrying out the attack, claiming the reporter was the leader of a Hamas cell – an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif had previously dismissed as baseless.
The IDF posted on X what it claimed were documents showing Sharif's connections to Hamas. The Guardian could not independently verify these claims as the IDF did not disclose the documents or provide factual evidence to back them up.
It was the first time during the war that Israel's military has swiftly claimed responsibility after a journalist was killed in a strike.
'Israel's pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,' said Sara Qudah, the Middle East and north Africa director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
In July, Sharif told CPJ that he lived with the 'feeling that I could be bombed and martyred at any moment'.
Reporters Without Borders on Monday condemned the 'acknowledged murder by the Israeli army' of Sharif in Gaza, and called on the international community to intervene.
Calling Sharif 'one of Gaza's bravest journalists,', Al Jazeera said the attack was 'a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza'.
In a final message, which Al Jazeera said had been written on 6 April and which was posted to Sharif's X account after his death, the reporter said that he had 'lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification'.
He continued: 'Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.'
After the Hamas attacks on 11 October 2023, Israel barred international journalists from entering Gaza – marking one of the rare moments that international reporters have been denied access to an active war zone. Since then, the task of documenting the war has fallen heavily on Palestinian journalists, often at the cost of their own lives – themselves caught in its devastation, displaced multiple times, their homes reduced to rubble, friends and relatives killed, and at times queueing for food at perilous distribution points.
According Gaza's government media office, 237 journalists have been killed by Israel since the war started on 7 October 2023. CPJ said at least 186 journalists have been killed in the Gaza conflict. Israel denies deliberately targeting journalists.
In a report released this year, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs' costs of war project said more journalists had been killed in Gaza than in both world wars, the Vietnam war, the wars in Yugoslavia and the US war in Afghanistan combined.
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Update: Date: 2025-08-12T11:22:46.000Z Title: Israel Content: Medical officials report at least 34 people were killed on Monday, with more than 15 people killed waiting for aid Hayden Vernon Tue 12 Aug 2025 12.22 BST First published on Tue 12 Aug 2025 07.57 BST From 7.57am BST 07:57 has stepped up bombing in Gaza despite global outcry over the killing of six journalists in the territory on Sunday night. i forces killed at least 55 people across the Gaza Strip over Sunday night and into Monday, including a well-known journalist said was a Hamas militant, as well as people seeking humanitarian aid, according to local health officials. Hospital officials reported at least 34 people were killed on Monday, not including the six journalists who were slain in a tent shortly before midnight. More than 15 people were killed while waiting for aid at the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, said Fares Awad, head of the ambulance services in northern Gaza. 's military did not immediately respond to questions about the deaths. Earlier on Monday, it said air and artillery units were operating in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis, where resident Noha Abu Shamala told AP that two drone strikes killed a family of seven in their apartment. Other key events include: Palestinians reported the heaviest bombardments in weeks on Monday in areas east of Gaza City, just hours after i prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected to complete a new expanded offensive in the territory 'fairly quickly'. The EU condemned the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in an i airstrike outside Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al Sharif. 'We take note of the i allegation that the group was Hamas terrorists, but there is a need in these cases to provide clear evidence, in the respect of rule of law, to avoid targeting of journalists,' foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement on X. The EU joins the UN, Reporters Without Borders, the Foreign Press Association and a host of other organisations in denouncing the attack. Palestinians in Gaza gathered on Monday for the funeral of the five Al Jazeera staff members and a sixth reporter killed in an i strike. Dozens stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al-Shifa hospital to pay their respects to Anas al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent aged 28, and four of his colleagues, killed on Sunday. Video footage appears to show the moment a Palestinian activist was killed as an i settler fired toward him during a confrontation with unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last month. The video released Sunday by B'Tselem, an i human rights group, shows i settler Yinon Levi firing a gun toward the person filming. The footage cuts but the camera keeps rolling as the person moans in pain. Updated at 8.08am BST 12.22pm BST 12:22 The World Health Organization said should let it stock medical supplies to deal with a 'catastrophic' health situation in Gaza, before it seizes control of Gaza City, AFP reports. has said its military would 'take control' of Gaza City in a plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet that sparked a wave of global criticism. 'We want to stock up, and we all hear about more humanitarian supplies are allowed in – well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace,' said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories. Fifty-two percent of medicines were running at zero stock, Peeperkorn said, speaking from Jerusalem. Peeperkorn said the WHO was able to bring in fewer supplies than it wanted 'due to the cumbersome procedures' and products 'still denied' entry – a topic of constant negotiation with the i authorities. 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On Monday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main representative group for relatives, backed the idea. Updated at 11.48am BST 11.27am BST 11:27 Gaza's civil defence agency said i air strikes on Gaza City have intensified in recent days, following prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approving plans to expand the war there, AFP reports. The i government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area, but according to the civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal, air strikes on Gaza City have been increasing for the past three days. Bassal said the residential neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Sabra have been hit 'with very heavy airstrikes targeting civilian homes, possibly including high-rise buildings'. 'For the third consecutive day, the i occupation is intensifying its bombardment,' said the spokesman. 'The i occupation is using all types of weapons in that area - bombs, drones, and also highly explosive munitions that cause massive destruction to civilian homes,' he added. Bassal said that at least 24 people had been killed across Gaza on Tuesday, including several casualties caused by strikes on Gaza City. 'The bombardment has been extremely intense for the past two days. With every strike, the ground shakes. There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped,' said Majed al-Hosary, a resident in Zeitoun. 11.08am BST 11:08 AFP provides some analysis on what 's military can expect to face in its new offensive on Gaza City: In a dense urban landscape, with likely thousands of Hamas fighters lying in wait, taking Gaza City will be a difficult and costly slog for the i army, security experts say. On Sunday, i prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his vision of victory in Gaza following 22 months of war – with the military ordered to attack the last remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City and the central camps further south. Amir Avivi, a former i general and head of the i Defense and Security Forum think tank, described the city as the 'heart of Hamas's rule in Gaza'. 'Gaza City has always been the centre of government and also has the strongest brigade of Hamas,' he said. According to Michael Milshtein, who heads the Palestinian Studies Program at Tel Aviv University, Hamas's military wing could have as many as 10,000 to 15,000 fighters in Gaza City, many of them freshly recruited. 'It's very easy to convince a 17, 18, 19-year-old Palestinian to be a part of Al-Qassam Brigades,' Milshtein told AFP. Other obstacles could include improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and the use of civilians as human shields in a dense urban maze of narrow alleys and tall buildings, according to press reports. 'It's almost impossible to go in there without creating both hostage casualties and a large humanitarian disaster,' said Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group. 'They will simply destroy everything, and then nothing will be left,' she said. 10.50am BST 10:50 i planes and tanks kept bombarding eastern areas of Gaza City overnight, killing at least 11 people, witnesses and medics said, Reuters reports. Witnesses and medics said the i military pounded eastern districts of Gaza City again overnight, killing seven people in two houses in the Zeitoun suburb and four in an apartment building in the city centre. In the south of the territory, five people including a couple and their child were killed by an i airstrike on a house in the city of Khan Younis and four by a strike on a tent encampment in nearby Mawasi, medics said. The i military said it was looking into the reports and that its forces take precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Separately, it said that its forces had killed dozens of militants in north Gaza over the past month and destroyed more tunnels used by militants in the area. 10.45am BST 10:45 In a post on X, Defense Forces claim to have 'debunked' what it called Hamas's 'starvation campaign' in Gaza. The IDF said that reviews of documents showed that most deaths by malnutrition in Gaza were linked to 'severe pre-existing conditions' and that only a handful of the 133 deaths by malnutrition claimed by Gaza's authorities in July could be 'verified'. The post said that the 'expert review concluded that there are no signs of a widespread malnutrition phenomenon among the population in Gaza'. While these claims could not be independently verified, the Guardian's reporting has covered the growing starvation crisis in Gaza. The UN has said Gaza is facing 'starvation, pure and simple'. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a 'large proportion' of Gaza's population was starving. As reported earlier this morning, Gaza's health ministry recorded 'five deaths due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, including two children', bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths recorded since 7 October, 2023 to 227, including 103 children. Updated at 11.47am BST 10.27am BST 10:27 Writing after killed six journalists in Gaza on Sunday night, including five Al Jazeera staff members, Hind Khoudary, an Al Jazeera journalist working in Gaza said: 'Even though Anas (al-Sharif) has been assassinated, even though Mohammed (Qreiqeh) has been killed, there are many more Palestinian journalists willing to follow in their footsteps, and report on what is happening in those areas. This has been very hard on every single Palestinian journalist. Their funeral yesterday was very sad; people in the streets were crying and calling out, 'Where did you go and leave us, Anas?' Palestinians feel they have lost a part of themselves and a member of their family. This has been very hard on us, but we are going to continue reporting. Gaza City will not be silenced.' 10.06am BST 10:06 Norway's $2tn sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has said it expects to divest from more i companies as part of its ongoing review of investments in the country over the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, Reuters reports The fund announced on Monday it was terminating contracts with external asset managers handling some of its i investments and has divested parts of its portfolio in the country. The review began last week following media reports that the fund had built a stake of just over 2% in an i jet engine group that provides services to 's armed forces, including the maintenance of fighter jets. The stake in the company, Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd (BSEL), has now been sold, the fund announced. Bet Shemesh did not respond to requests for comment. Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), an arm of Norway's central bank, which held stakes in 61 i companies as of 30 June, in recent days divested stakes in 11 firms, including BSEL. It did not name the other companies. 'We expect to divest from more companies,' NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen told a press conference on Tuesday. Updated at 10.08am BST 9.45am BST 09:45 Gaza's health ministry has recorded 'five deaths due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, including two children'. This brings the total number of hunger-related deaths recorded since 7 October, 2023 to 227, including 103 children. The UN has warned Gaza is "experiencing 'starvation, pure and simple' as gears up for a renewed offensive in the territory. 9.28am BST 09:28 A Hamas delegation is holding talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo to repair their relationship after it deteriorated last week, Egyptian and Palestinian sources told i newspaper Haaretz. Khalil al-Hayya, a high-ranking Hamas figure in Qatar, had hinted Egyptians should rise up in protest of the starvation in Gaza, leading to tensions between Hamas and Egypt. 'Netanyahu is setting conditions for surrender and is not hinting at any change in his position, so the round of talks is starting with little hope,' a source told the newspaper. Meanwhile, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are working on a nnew ceasefire and hostage-release plan to be presented to Hamas, according to a report by Sky News Arabia. 9.08am BST 09:08 The UN agency for Palestine, Unrwa, has warned that Gaza's children face becoming a 'lost generation' as conflict has robbed them of education. 'The longer children in Gaza are out of school, the greater the risk of a lost generation. Every day away from the classroom takes away the future they deserve. The consequences of this war are long term for Gaza's children. A ceasefire is the first step to getting them back to school,' the agency said in a post on X. The United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said that according to the latest satellite-based damage assessment in July, 97% of educational facilities in Gaza have sustained some level of damage with 91% requiring major rehabilitation or complete reconstruction to become functional again. Updated at 9.10am BST 8.48am BST 08:48 Australia prime minister Anthony Albanese said his i counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu was 'in denial' about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a day after announcing Australia would recognise a Palestinian state for the first time, Reuters reports. Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at next month's United Nations General Assembly, Albanese said on Monday, a move that adds to international pressure on after similar announcements from France, the UK and Canada. Albanese said the Netanyahu government's reluctance to listen to its allies contributed to Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state. 'He again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people,' Albanese said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC, recounting a Thursday phone call with Netanyahu discussing the issue. Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state is conditional on commitments received from the Palestinian Authority, including that Islamist militant group Hamas would have no involvement in any future state. Right-leaning opposition leader Sussan Ley said the move, which breaks with long-held bipartisan policy over and the Palestinian territories, risked jeopardising Australia's relationship with the US. 8.29am BST 08:29 People gathered in cities around the world to protest the i killing of six journalists in Gaza. Updated at 8.33am BST 8.15am BST 08:15 Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said now is not the time to recognise a Palestinian state. Blinken, who served under president Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, argued in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal that the focus should be on the release of i hostages, bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza and the withdrawal of the IDF from the Palestinian territory. Blinken said the decision by France, the UK and other countries to recognise a Palestinian state is 'morally right and reflects a global consensus,' but added that doing so without requiring the removal of Hamas from power 'would fortify proponents of terror on the Palestinian side and rejectionists of Palestinian statehood on the i side.' 7.57am BST 07:57 has stepped up bombing in Gaza despite global outcry over the killing of six journalists in the territory on Sunday night. i forces killed at least 55 people across the Gaza Strip over Sunday night and into Monday, including a well-known journalist said was a Hamas militant, as well as people seeking humanitarian aid, according to local health officials. Hospital officials reported at least 34 people were killed on Monday, not including the six journalists who were slain in a tent shortly before midnight. More than 15 people were killed while waiting for aid at the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, said Fares Awad, head of the ambulance services in northern Gaza. 's military did not immediately respond to questions about the deaths. Earlier on Monday, it said air and artillery units were operating in northern Gaza and in Khan Younis, where resident Noha Abu Shamala told AP that two drone strikes killed a family of seven in their apartment. Other key events include: Palestinians reported the heaviest bombardments in weeks on Monday in areas east of Gaza City, just hours after i prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected to complete a new expanded offensive in the territory 'fairly quickly'. The EU condemned the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in an i airstrike outside Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al Sharif. 'We take note of the i allegation that the group was Hamas terrorists, but there is a need in these cases to provide clear evidence, in the respect of rule of law, to avoid targeting of journalists,' foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement on X. The EU joins the UN, Reporters Without Borders, the Foreign Press Association and a host of other organisations in denouncing the attack. Palestinians in Gaza gathered on Monday for the funeral of the five Al Jazeera staff members and a sixth reporter killed in an i strike. Dozens stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al-Shifa hospital to pay their respects to Anas al-Sharif, a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent aged 28, and four of his colleagues, killed on Sunday. Video footage appears to show the moment a Palestinian activist was killed as an i settler fired toward him during a confrontation with unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last month. The video released Sunday by B'Tselem, an i human rights group, shows i settler Yinon Levi firing a gun toward the person filming. The footage cuts but the camera keeps rolling as the person moans in pain. Updated at 8.08am BST
